Is Google Misrepresenting You?

By Quentin Fottrell

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Google recently re-worked its algorithms to find more quality sites for searches and introduced ways for users to block websites on searches they don’t like. On Tuesday, it even launched a new search app for the iPhone. But what happens when the search result is you?

In this instance, Google puts very little power back in consumer hands and, unless there’s some illegal or highly personal information at issue, it’s unlikely to get involved in tit-for-tat between two third parties.

Looking yourself up on Google’s search engine can be like gazing at your reflection in a Hall of Mirrors. Google’s algorithms do their best to present the most useful results, but they often give a skewed result.

Short of setting up your own fan page, there’s very little you can do about it.

Spare a thought for Dr. Hugo Guidotti Russo. The Madrid-based plastic surgeon wants Google to remove from its search engine a 1991 article that appeared in the Spanish newspaper El Pais about a dispute he had with a patient. Google doesn’t easily forget.

So what do you do if the Google “you” has little or no resemblance to the real you?

This is Google Support’s official stance, which attempts to draw a line under the matter: “We run into a lot of people who think that Google runs the web and controls all the sites on it, but that’s really not the case.” It doesn’t run the web, but it does dominate it.

A spokesman for the U.S.-based search engine says Google won’t remove comments just because you don’t like what other people say. “Google will remove items in a narrow set of cases, including for legal reasons such as child pornography and valid court orders, and for violations of its webmaster guidelines,” the spokesman tells Pay Dirt. “We don’t take action in a ‘he says/she says’ disputes.” Users can also alert Google to sites publishing certain kinds of confidential personal information, including social security or government identification numbers, bank account or credit card numbers, and images of handwritten signatures.

Here’s what you can do instead:

1. Contact the webmaster. Make a complaint to the owner of the website and convince them to take the article down. That might work if a friend posts an unflattering photograph of you on his/her blog, but you’ll have your work cut out for you if it’s a bigger media company.

Should you succeed, however, Google has instructions for website owners on what to do next to remove it from the search engine using the URL removal tool.

If you fail to persuade the website owner to remove the reference – the more likely outcome – Google has a more unusual piece of advice:

2. Create your own blog. Start posting stuff about yourself to move the offending items further down on the search results. A spokesman for Google puts it more delicately, advising users to “create relevant and useful content.” Except if you are a politician trying to cover up a scandal or past indiscretion; Google’s army of algorithms are smart and act quickly. And, needless to say, no beating up on yourself in public.

3. Change your name. If all else fails do as Google’s outgoing CEO Eric Schmidt suggested to The Wall Street Journal last year that to avoid being reminded of youthful indiscretions, change your identity on entering adulthood.

Do you think Google should be more cooperative?

P.S. The Google spokesman did not wish to give his name. Privacy, like charity, starts at home.

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About Pay Dirt

Pay Dirt examines the millions of consumer decisions Americans make every day: What to buy, how much to pay, whether to rave or complain. Lead written by Quentin Fottrell, the blog examines these interactions, providing readers with news, insight and tips on shopping, spending, customer service, and companies that do right – and wrong – by their customers. Send items, questions and comments to quentin.fottrell@dowjones.com or tweet @SMPayDirt.